


Distance between the Realms

by baeconandeggs



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Drama, M/M, Psychological, Romance, mature - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 05:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14562345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeconandeggs/pseuds/baeconandeggs
Summary: Baekhyun, a counsellor and he had a chance to peek inside the head of one particular Park Chanyeol. But whose head was he peeking into?





	Distance between the Realms

**Author's Note:**

> **Author:** [ReadingIsFree](https://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/1579296)  
>  **Prompt #:** BAE063  
>  **Disclaimer: baeconandeggs/the mods is/are not the author/s of this story. Authors will be credited and tagged after reveals.** The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life. No offense is intended towards them, their families or friends. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this fictional work. No copyright infringement is intended.
> 
>  **Author's Note:** To the prompter: I don’t know if this is what you wanted when you thought of the prompt itself, but I do hope you give it a chance and let me know your honest opinion regarding it. To anyone reading it: Everything is imaginary so open your minds and fly off to the dream land!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

_‘What is Paranoid Schizophrenia?’_

 

He wrote on the whiteboard with a red marker. Slowly, he turned around to look at the classroom. Closing the cap on the marker, he carefully placed it on the table. 

 

Leaning against it, he stood tilting his figure, favouring his right.

 

The classroom was silent. There were a few ruffles and many taps on the phones. Many looked at the syllabus frantically trying to decipher why the professor jumped so many topics and went straight to the one at the end. 

 

“It is a sub-type of Schizophrenia………”, someone at the back began speaking.

 

Clearing his throat, he spoke a little louder than usual, softness still evident, “Please refrain from telling me the definitions given in the books.”

 

The student fell silent.

 

“What can YOU say about it?”, he spoke again after some time. 

 

“Losing a focus on reality,” someone to the right, said slowly but clearly. 

 

He turned his head towards the voice to look at the guy sitting in the fourth row, meeting his gaze. “Right.”

 

“And how do you know a focus on reality is lost?”, he crossed his arms across his chest, looking across the classroom.

“That is such an absurd question!”, someone at the back retorted.

 

“Oh really?”, he raised his eyebrow and looked at the girl in the back.

 

“That’s like saying how do you know that what you are experiencing is real and not a dream.”

 

“Bull!”, the professor rubbished her claims at trying to sound superior. But before he could tell her how she was wrong, he heard a familiar voice.

 

“You are then questioning your eyes and not your brain”, the same guy from before looked at the girl and retorted.

 

The professor looked at the guy once again, and then ruffled at the sheets kept on the desk, scanning through the list. 

 

“Oh Sehun…”

 

The said guy met his professor’s gaze before turning his head down again. 

 

“How will YOU question your brain?”

 

Before he could answer the question, the guest lecture came to an end, when the door to the classroom was opened by Mr. Kim Junmyeon whose rimmed glasses and lab coat made him look more like a surgeon than an assistant professor.

 

“Mr. Byun, are you done with your lecture? Should I come back in a while?”, he stood holding the door handle, not wanting to barge in.

 

Baekhyun moved from his previous position and started collecting his things. 

 

“No no, Mr. Kim, my class is over.”

 

“Thank you everyone for bearing with me. Remember to submit your thoughts on the discussed topic by tonight. That is your assignment.”

 

As he smiled at the class before leaving, he could hear many groans from the students. 

 

“Hi, Baek! How are you? Glad to see you here.”

 

Junmyeon spoke with utmost elation at his colleague. Baekhyun smiled his most precious smile at his hyung. 

 

“I am good, how are you?”

 

“I am good as well, so are you back? Counselling?”, the older looked at him with concern crossing his face.

 

Baekhyun shook his head, “Yes! I am back!”, he assured the other.

 

“Listen…..I will visit you at the clinic tomorrow, there is this guy………I hope you can talk to him….. you should say no if that would make you feel uncomfortable…..”, the look in his eyes was a mixture of concern and helplessness, as if worried the other might negate his request.

 

The younger shook his head, speaking fervently, “Of course, of course, anything for you, hyung, come by anytime that suits you, I will be at the clinic tomorrow from 9 in the morning.”

 

“Thank you so much, Baekhyun, this means a lot!”, he spoke, before going into the classroom, Baekhyun had exited from. 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Sitting in his clinic on a Saturday afternoon was more tiring than he anticipated, blasting the A.C. to full speed, he began reading the first file on his desk.

 

Though having given up his psychiatrist practice a year back, he was back to minimal counselling especially for close friends and relatives, who demanded he help them, since he was the best in the field. 

 

He looked up from his glasses to the door, when he saw the receptionist outside, trying to make her way inside, “Doctor, there is a…”, she looked at the paper, scanning the words, “Park.. Chanyeol, here to see you?”, she stood at the door.

 

“Huh,” he began looking through his computer to see if he even had a patient like that, but before he could scroll any further, his phone rang. 

 

Looking at the screen, he quickly picked it up, “Hello, Hyung!”

 

“Baekhyun, I am so sorry I got caught up in work, but I send him to your clinic, has he reached? Did you meet him?”, Baekhyun interrupted the other , “Hold on, hyung, who did you send?”

 

“Oh my god, don’t tell me he got lost, Chanyeol? Is there anyone by the name of Chanyeol who came to see you? Park Chanyeol?”, his voice on the other end was quite frantic and Baekhyun sighed. 

 

“Relax Hyung, someone by that name just came to my clinic, I haven’t talked to him, I will call you when I see him ok?”

 

“Ok Ok, and Baekhyun be careful he is a bit…… if it doesn’t seem right, you can say no to meeting him again!”

 

“Hyung, go back to work, and stop worrying,” with that he hung up the phone, looking at the receptionist, he nodded, “Send him in.”

 

She left, closing the glass door.

 

Baekhyun moved from his chair, walking towards the sofa kept near the other end, away from his table. 

 

He dragged another chair, closer to it, hoping to make the place as comfortable as possible.

 

Nonchalantly, looking towards the door, he saw a seemingly tall guy, standing with his face staring at the form in his hand, Baekhyun rolled his eyes. 

 

He had informed the stupid woman to not give the form to new patients, it made them frenzy.

 

Walking upto the door, he smiled at the now, even taller guy, who took a step back, looking at him. 

 

“Welcome, you can leave the form for later,” he tried taking the form from him, but somehow he snatched it away. 

 

Baekhyun quickly retracted his hand, other hand still holding the door handle, he moved aside to let him enter. 

 

He was probably taller than six feet, to Baekhyun, his unruly hair curled at the ends, were only adding to his height. 

 

His face was calm, at least that was what it looked like, but to the counsellor, the whiff of scent he carried reminded him of earthy homes, adding a synthetic tinge to it probably from his clothes.

 

His scent reminded him of home, his own home.

 

Shaking his head, he went to sit in the chair, still observing the tall guy, standing, looking around at his office. 

 

He slowly turned to look at the doctor, who was sitting with his legs crossed, hands cupped in front of him. 

 

The tall guy swayed around, walking swiftly towards the sofa, seating himself slowly, probably not wanting to feel that sucked into feeling from a sofa that had been kept at a place for long. 

 

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at the form that was crumpled because of the way he was clutching it. 

 

Clearing his throat he began to speak, but stopped when the taller got up. He tilted his head upwards, looking at him looking around once again. 

He then, sat on the sofa once again. 

 

To which Baekhyun could only speculate, he was trying to find a comfortable position. 

 

As he settled, Baekhyun thought it was his queue to speak, but stopped once again when he heard his voice, “Listen, I don’t suffer from anything, I just don’t know why they keep telling me I need to see doctors like you,” if the shorter wasn’t shocked before, he was now, at the depth of the voice, somehow it seemed appropriate as if matching his tall structure, but at the same time, the intensity itself seemed unreal, like an echo. 

 

He spoke nothing in return, because this was a sentence, he was so used to now, that it just seemed like a rehearsed monologue, he wasn’t going to even register.

 

“Hello, I am Byun Baekhyun, you should refrain from calling me anything other than doctor.”

 

The patient seemed taken aback, mouth opening to speak, but Baekhyun spoke before he had the chance, “Just plain introduction.”

 

Chanyeol was rubbing his hands, he then glanced at the A.C. and looked back at the doctor, “Can you switch it off, I mean, it’s freezing in here, it’s not even that hot.”

 

His lips were pressed into a thin line, he got up slowly, picking up the remote from his table, he pointed it towards the split A.C. and pressed a few times, before the temperature on the digital screen changed to 21 from 17.

 

Sitting back on the chair, he looked at him, this time, he was looking at the form, he had now kept on the table. 

 

“I don’t know what to fill in this….”, he said as he read the form.

 

“You don’t have to.”

 

“But I should fill it and return it to her….”

 

“You don’t have to.”

 

Baekhyun was going to have to strangle her after this. He was sick of always having to tell her to stop acting on her own. Why can’t people do as they are told? He was now looking at the pen the other was holding in his hands, eyes still on the paper.

 

He saw how he wrote his name in the first blank, and his phone number in the next, he quietly let him fill the form, giving him what he wanted, he had leaned into his chair, crossing his legs and uncrossing them. 

 

He leaned a bit forward when he saw what he had written in the form after that. 

 

“You remember your dreams?,” he questioned slowly, looking at the sheet of paper.

 

He saw how the other had abruptly stopped writing on the sheet, and then just scribbled randomly on it, tearing it in the process and then scrunching it up, before closing the pen and keeping it back on the table next to the now scrunched up paper.

 

Baekhyun saw how it slowly began opening up but stopped midway, probably stuck in some random fold. 

 

He had leaned backwards into the sofa, closing his eyes. Opening them, he spoke, “You can read upside down?”, Baekhyun blinked at his observation.

 

“Is it something very difficult?,” he questioned him. 

 

“I cannot.”

 

“So is it difficult?

 

“It should be…..sometimes I can’t read…..”

 

“Read what?”

 

“I could read the form….”, he spoke, Baekhyun fidgeted in his chair, not wanting to stop him from speaking.

 

“I don’t suffer from anything, it’s just that sometimes, it’s difficult to …..”

 

“…..Differentiate dreams and reality,” Baekhyun had spoken out of turn.

 

He nodded. Then he leaned forward, “How do you know?”, he had challenged him.

 

Baekhyun smiled, “Next time, try counting your fingers, if you can count them upto ten without forgetting what number you had said before, it’s real.”

 

Chanyeol had gotten up, face too serious, storming out of clinic as quickly as he could. 

 

Baekhyun began laughing at him, getting up from his chair, he shook his head, still laughing, as he made his way to the table. 

 

He picked up his phone, and tapped on the last call, waiting for it to connect. 

 

“Hello hyung, why did you sent him to me?,” he was now intrigued.

 

“Someone who could use your help, Baekhyun, thank you for seeing him…”

 

“Anything for you, Hyung, anything for you,” he had hung up then, making sure to strangle his receptionist. 

 

“Lisa, you gave him a form? Why would you give him a form?”, he was now leaning on the table, legs crossed one ahead of the other, sternly looking at her.

 

“Sorry, Doctor, but he insisted he needed to read something, he said something about it not been something he had seen before.”

 

At this, Baekhyun dismissed her, and went to sit in his chair. 

 

Opening a new document, he typed into the computer, 

 

_Park, Chanyeol_

_Paranoia_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Professor!!!”, he woke up to the guy from before, trying to enter into his cabin as he straightened himself in his chair, realising that the student was already inside standing just by the door.

 

He hurriedly tried to remember his name but finally just gave up and replied nonchalantly, “Yes?”

 

“I want to work with you!”, he beamed making himself comfortable in the guest chair in Baekhyun’s cabin.

 

“You are still in your second year,” Baekhyun looked at the sheet once again to register which class he was teaching. 

 

“But everyone says you started practicing in your second year as well, they say you were a prodigy!!! You were a doctor at 21! I am 23 and still in second year!!!”

 

The older blinked at the sudden disclosure of his own life from someone else. He looked at the other in a skeptical manner in order to check if he was probably a stalker.

 

The other somehow understood the awkwardness and suddenly stood up from the chair and began apologising, “I am so sorry, Sir, I did not even introduce myself, I am Oh Sehun a student of yours. You just left our class and this is my assignment paper on paranoid schizophrenia for today.”

 

He slammed the paper on the table in excitement. 

 

Baekhyun slowly looked at the paper and then again at the excited guy in front of him. 

 

“I will check your paper”, he said without any emotion, as if tired. 

 

“So will you let me work with you? Do you still practice?”, he was leaning against the table now. 

 

Baekhyun tried to push him away by settling the things on the table in their right places which were moved by his excitement. 

 

“Listen, if I find your paper better than the others, I will give you a case. How is that?”

 

“YESSSSSS!”, the younger naive doctor, ran from the room in excitement and was heard shouting through the corridors as if he had achieved some forbidden treasure.

 

 

He left for the staff parking at around 4, still fiddling with his folder.

 

Suddenly feeling the air on his neck, he ruffled his pockets to take out his keys. Unlocking the car, he threw the folder in the passenger’s seat. 

 

On his way, he felt his hands tremor. Ignoring it, he kept driving. Looking at the rearview mirror, he saw a figure sitting. Frantically, he turned around and saw no one. Turning back around, he saw the same figure in the passenger seat looking at him, this time asking him, “Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here.” He registered the voice but somehow now was stuck, couldn’t turn his head.

 

Confused, he tried to compose himself, when he felt hands on his neck, strangling him. He started choking, hands still on the steering wheel. He tried to see, still cornered into the window. He could see the construction truck just ahead of him bellowing its horn all the way on the one-way road he was on, somehow. 

 

He could see the truck approach him from the other side.

 

“Oh Shit!”, he knew he was trapped. 

 

“BAEKHYUN, WAKE UP! WAKE UP! PLEASE! This is an attack. Please. Wake. Up!”, he ordered himself, screaming at the top of his lungs. 

 

He already saw the impending impact, splintering him into a million pieces from the collision. 

 

“WAKE UP!”, he still felt his own voice from the collision, a feeling he was being pulled back.

 

And he jolted back, in his cabin, with Oh Sehun, who was still speaking, “So will you read my paper? Will you let me work with you?”

 

Blinking his eyes, he rubbed them, then spoke slowly, “Yes, I will read your paper, and if it is better than others, I will give you the case.”

 

“You would do that?????,” he had leaned too much on the table, face closer to Baekhyun’s when the older leaned backwards, nodding. 

 

He saw how the other backed away, smiling and then just left. 

 

From the corridor, he could hear his laugh. 

 

Rubbing his face, he tried to remember the figure, but the only thing he remembered was the voice, somehow not accepting it’s familiarity.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

He did not see his patient, either on the Monday or on the Tuesday, but his office was in a ruckus, when he saw him on the Wednesday, barging in, while he was sleeping in his chair. 

 

Baekhyun opened his eyes, fluttering them open to check his surroundings, he stopped when he saw Chanyeol sitting on the sofa, looking at him. 

 

He closed his eyes once again, rubbing them. 

 

He then spoke, “Mr. Park, please come to my office with an appointment,” his eyes still closed, palms rubbing into them.

 

“I can’t count in my dreams, I can’t differentiate….”, he was shaking his head.

 

“Hence, the counting,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes, at the stupidity. 

 

“What?”, he was not a person who understood sarcasm, or crass jokes for that matter. 

 

“Mr. Park, if you can count, it means you are not dreaming, hence, it’s real, hence you are not in a dream.” Baekhyun was refraining himself from rolling his eyes once again.

 

“But you did not count right now, how do you know you are not in a dream?”, Baekhyun blinked at him. 

 

“I do not suffer from dream entrapment.”

 

“But then, how do you know what to do to get out of it?”

 

“Because I am a doctor?”, the doctor was sure his eyes would go to the back of his head.

 

“No, no, I have seen many doctors, they have never even given it a name, calling me paranoid, or suffering from paranoia, you are the first one, who called it …..what did you say?”, his face was scrunched, focusing on remembering what it was the other had called it.

 

Getting up from his chair behind the table, he walked upto the chair opposite the sofa, and sat on it. 

 

“Dream Entrapment.”

 

“Are you making that up?”, he spoke. 

 

“What you do want me to say?,” he had crossed his legs once again, hands cupping the knee.

 

“That you are not?”, he narrowed his eyes to look at him.

 

“Somehow I am not sure who is questioning who?”, Baekhyun was laughing now, he didn’t know why he laughed at the most inappropriate times, somehow always in front of his patients, making them more anxious. 

 

Though Chanyeol seemed to have still not transitioned from his narrowed eyes, his poker face was a bit overwhelming for Baekhyun, who cleared his throat, trying to contain his laughter.

 

“I am questioning you, how did you know? Why did you say to count my fingers?,” he began looking at his fingers, mouthing numbers just to be sure. 

 

“I counted ten fingers, I am not dreaming,” he then blinked to look at the doctor. 

 

He was scribbling into the notepad, “Are you sure?”, his question made the other blink, subsequently becoming aware of his surroundings. 

 

Then Chanyeol saw Baekhyun holding up the notepad towards him, with words scribbled across, which were not readable to him. 

 

“What have you written? That is gibberish……”, and then it hit him. 

He then heard Baekhyun mouth towards him, “Wake up!”

 

Chanyeol bounced back to the sofa, when he saw Baekhyun hovering over him, speaking, when he came to his senses, the voice became clearer, “Chanyeol, Wake up! How many fingers am I holding up?”

 

His vision became clearer when he saw three fingers being held up, “Three, three fingers! What happened?”, he looked around, when he saw Baekhyun moving away from the sofa. 

 

Baekhyun had crossed his arms, standing with his left leg extended, he spoke, “You need a new method, your mind tricked you! You counted, didn’t you?”, Chanyeol was blinking his eyes. 

 

“Yes, I did, but…… how is that possible? I thought……”, Baekhyun had his back to him, writing something on the notepad.

 

He then turned around, holding it up, ‘H E L P   M E’

 

Chanyeol got up. Frantically he moved around, “What is happening, I can read it……”, he was moving forward, when Baekhyun put up his hand. 

 

“Relax, that is another way to wake up the brain, sudden anxiety and stress, and since you could read it, your brain registered it and you moved around quicker, you are awake.”

 

“What are you doing, I swear, ever since, I have met you, this thing has become more prominent and I have began losing the reality, more frequently, just stop it!”, saying that Chanyeol left the clinic, running away. 

 

The doctor kept the notepad down on the table, before returning to his chair behind the table. 

 

Opening the document once again, he looked at what he had already written:

 

_Park, Chanyeol_

_Paranoia, Delusional, Dream Entrapper_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

For once he thought his new patient was just that. A regular patient. But somehow he was boggled to see the other casually stroll into his office that Friday, because he didn’t remember registering his name on a Friday. 

 

“Mr. Park, how many times do I need to make this clear, only by appointment.”

 

His remark was stern, yet he couldn’t send him away. As a doctor, he just couldn’t. Also he had no patients waiting for that day, he had no excuse either. 

 

The familiarity with this patient, was hinting at something so much more familial. He shrugged it off as just a hint on his constant presence there.

 

“How do you know you have woken up from a dream?,” he was furrowing his brows, looking him straight in the eye for an answer.

 

Baekhyun sighed and then spoke, “When you become aware.”

 

“How do I become aware?”, Chanyeol had bent forward on the sofa, clearly concentrating hard.

 

“By counting…… by waking your mind up through your own process,” he spoke, hesitantly.

 

Chanyeol leaned back, humming in response. 

 

“And when counting doesn’t work?”, he spoke after a few seconds or so.

 

The doctor abruptly looked up, blinking rapidly, he spoke, “Why? Did counting stop working for you?”

 

The taller only shrugged.

 

The doctor was rubbing his temple with his slender fingers. Sighing, he opened his eyes to look at the patient, “Why are you here, Chanyeol?”

 

He looked at him, leaning forward, “What if I get trapped, because I don’t know I am dreaming, like what if I have been dreaming too long, I don’t know anymore when I am awake….and when I am asleep?”

 

“That is why you are here, I am here to jolt you back if you go to your dreamland.”

 

He was rolling his eyes again. 

 

“But how do you know I am not dreaming right now,” he blinked. 

 

“You wouldn’t see me this clearly if you were dreaming,” he spoke too quickly.

 

“So you have more methods, do you?”, he was crossing his arms against his chest, leaning backwards once again. 

 

“No, I know the loopholes and I can help you detangle them in order to stay sane.”

 

“So, you mean to say, I won’t be able to see you clearly, if I were dreaming?,” he had tilted his face, looking at something in the distance just behind the doctor.

 

“No, it’s like your mind can only hold so much, it will eventually break itself from the dream, scattering the dream, and waking you up,” he was now speaking from a doctor’s point of view, distributing knowledge, perceivably delivering a lecture. To a patient.

 

“So what happens when you see clearly in your dream?”

 

“It means, your mind is getting weaker……,” he was twirling the pen in his fingers, Chanyeol could not fathom how it was not falling from his hand.

 

“You mean the stronger the mind, the faster the realisation….”

 

“….That it is a dream.”

 

“So the mind gets weaker if it does not realise you are dreaming? Isn’t the mind stronger if it can make up something that doesn’t exist?”

 

He hears a dry chuckle from the doctor, “If the mind was indeed getting stronger, you think it would escape to a dreamland?”, he was rolling his eyes, yet again.

 

“No, I mean it takes a certain amount of patience and will to create something out of nothing?”, Chanyeol was no more a patient, but somehow like an overzealous kid, Baekhyun seemed to have remembered when he had began practicing at a tender age of 19.

 

“If creating something out of nothing was just a measure of will and patience, painters and writers would be the most virtuous.”

 

“They are not?”

 

“No, Chanyeol just because something is confined by something, does not been everything similar to it is confined by the same thing. There are always exceptions.”

 

“So you mean, there could be an exception that a mind is indeed very strong, and hence uses simulation to subdue the impact on reality?”

 

There was silence in the room, the doctor had no words, almost gagging, trying to find something powerful to return and perhaps make the other think.

 

Chanyeol realised he had struck a nerve, so he coughed and spoke, “Do you know what scares me?”

 

The doctor didn’t understand the direction of the conversation. It didn’t feel like he was the doctor.

 

“The fact that I will end up like my mother, not knowing what is real and what isn’t?”

 

“But you know what scares me the most?”

 

“I am okay with it being me who loses a focus on reality, but I am seeing one of the greatest minds losing everything because of me, I can’t just not do something, help me understand?”

 

The doctor had uncrossed his legs, no more writing in the notepad, but instead too focused on the patient ahead of him.

 

“What do you want to understand?”

 

“Why is it that only I remember touching him, holding him, making love to him, and he seems to have no idea who I am…..”, Chanyeol was holding his head.

 

“Maybe you are still dreaming, and he actually remembers you far better and needs you to come back?”, this time Baekhyun was actually giving advice like a doctor.

 

“You don’t get it? Do you?”, his pained expression was too dramatic for the doctor to decode. But when he saw him get up abruptly and leave, he felt he struck a chord too dreadful for the other, noting it in his notes. But striking it off as a result of his condition.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

He didn’t see his patient for another week, to say he wasn’t curious would be a lie. 

 

His receptionist made her way inside, “Doctor, Mr. Park is here,” she said, before leaving, he saw the other enter through the door, hair even more ruffled than the very first time he saw him, but this time, his clothes were somehow mirroring a younger guy than his height portrayed. 

 

His shorts were just above his knees and his tee was basically a graphic tee, Baekhyun had usually seen on college kids.

 

He came and sat on sofa, this time sitting quietly but then leaned back and looked at him moving from his chair behind the table to come and sit just ahead of him on the chair. 

 

“I don’t get trapped that often……”, Baekhyun heard each word carefully. 

 

“But there was this dream, I felt, like it wasn’t mine, I was in a car, actually I was in the bus, but somehow I was there, and someone….. I can’t quite figure out, was going to die, I even tried to warn them……..but I woke up before I could figure out if that person was fine…..”

 

Baekhyun fidgeted in his seat. 

 

“But looking at you, I can see you are well and good,” saying that, he leaned back.

 

It was at this instant, Baekhyun knew, he began looking around for a sign. Anything, he knew his fingers would be ten, they had stopped working that way since long ago, he then saw Chanyeol smiling at him. 

 

“Byun Baekhyun, I found you, at the right time. I was so scared, you have no idea how many times I had to jolt myself to get here, I have to protect you, it was always you, and now I must take you back, this is me, but you are not you, you are still somewhere away,” and before Baekhyun could do anything, Chanyeol had gotten up, approaching him. His words weren’t making sense, as if he was speaking something and his mind was speaking with him, clear for him to hear both.

 

Not approaching like that, but he was not stopping, holding his face in his hands, he brought his face closer, “You asked me to help you, this is me helping you,” and then his lips were on his, and it was this feeling, which felt too good to be true, that Baekhyun knew this was a dream, and he knew, his mind wouldn’t rip out of it. 

 

Actually it was his heart that won’t let him wake up, feeling up the luscious lips, biting into his, he began wheezing, because it was only so long, that the mind’s barrier broke, and he saw his image spiralling away, and the expression on his face was unreadable, he was unrecognisable. He was in front of his office, heartbeat too erratic, and he brought his fingers closer to his lips, still wet from before.  

 

He unlocked the door to his clinic, and entered the dimly lit space, it was 3 in the afternoon, his receptionist no where to be seen. 

 

Walking across the small corridor, he stood just outside his room, when he saw Lisa come out from the opposite corridor, the bathroom, probably, and seeing him, she stopped momentarily, then came towards him, “Good afternoon, doctor, how was your lunch?”, she smiled at him, he nodded at her, “Fine”, muttering he opened the glass door and entered his room.

 

He turned around, when there was a knock on the door, backing away he saw Junmyeon, standing in the hallway. 

 

He had scrunched his face, “Hyung! What are you…,” Baekhyun had spoken out of turn, when he saw the other look at him eyebrows furrowed. 

 

“Baekhyun! Please tell me you are alright? Didn’t I tell you to say no if he wasn’t someone who you could handle….”, he said, hands on Baekhyun’s shoulders.

 

“What are you saying..?”, Baekhyun was confused. 

 

“Baekhyun, he is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, just like you did, well, you treated yourself, but I don’t know if you will be able to treat him….”

 

“No, Hyung, he isn’t suffering from schizophrenia, he has paranoia, also he is a dream entrapper….”, Baekhyun stopped abruptly when he saw Junmyeon’s eyes widening.

 

“No, no, Baekhyun, it took you one whole year to get over it…..please don’t tell me it’s happening again, what is your timeline, what is the last thing you remember? Shit. I shouldn’t have sent him to you! It’s my fault!!!!”, Junmyeon was calling someone. 

 

“Hyung, I know what I am doing, you have to trust me,” the doctor was on his computer, opening the document.

 

“Doc….”, both of them froze, when they saw the tall guy standing at the entrance, “Suho hyung? I didn’t know you see doc as well,” Junmyeon shoved his phone in his pocket, before looking at Baekhyun he spoke, “Can I trust you?”, his eyes were too stern.

 

“Yes,” he mumbled, still looking at the document:

  

 

 

_Byun, Baekhyun_

_Paranoia, Delusional, Dream Entrapper_

 

 

 

Junmyeon made his way out, smiling at the taller, before darting away.

 

The doctor swore, he was even taller than the first time he had seen him, he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, with his converse shining, that had gained his attention.

 

He entered the place and sat on the sofa, Baekhyun was eyeing him. 

 

Somewhat skeptic of actually approaching him, he slowly sat on the chair, when he heard the other speak.

 

“Suho Hyung told me to stop seeing you, he says you treated yourself…”, his voice was quiet. 

 

Baekhyun was blinking his eyes, “Suho…?”, he spoke to himself.

 

“Junmyeon Hyung…I call him Suho…”, Chanyeol had his hands together in front of his face, elbows on his knees. 

 

“Oh…WHAT?”, Baekhyun almost spoke two tones higher than usual. 

 

“Yeah he said, you were a psychiatrist, but while treating someone, you became…mad…yourself, and hence you treated yourself…,” the taller was too serious.

 

“I don’t know what has that got to do with anything…”, he was again back to his normal self. 

 

“No, I mean he said you suffered from what I do, so……every dream of mine makes sense, it’s because there was no way to get to you, so I had to build everything for you..…..you don’t remember me, do you?”

 

“What?”, Baekhyun had stopped looking at him but was instead looking at the vertical lines just behind Chanyeol. 

 

The taller spoke, “There are ten lines, no matter how many times you count them, they will remain ten, because I am real, I found my way back…”, he saw how Baekhyun darted his eyes from the lines to him. 

 

“I read your files, it said you treated my mother, I used to come here, long ago, when we were just kids, 19, I was shocked to see that it was you who was the doctor.”

 

“Do you remember my mother?”, Chanyeol had gotten up. 

 

“Park Yeonae?,” Baekhyun had furrowed his eyebrows. The scent somehow hit him again, he registered the familiarity too late.

 

The taller was actually happy to know he remembered that, “My mother sent me, she said you needed my help, Baekhyun, my mother is well because of you, but when she got to know you were in the psychiatry ward, in cuffs, telling the doctors the exact amount of medicine to give to you, she couldn’t believe, that someone so brilliant like you had become like that because of her…And now this… ”

 

Baekhyun shook his head, “It had nothing to do with your mother, it was my own doing, I got too involved in her case, and then, one thing led to another and I lost my grip on reality, so how is she doing?”, Baekhyun was smiling.

 

“Baekhyun, but one thing bugs me, why don’t you remember me?”, Chanyeol was standing just ahead of him, the doctor had to tilt his head upwards to look at him.

 

“I don’t know, maybe you were just a fragment, and you just got lost somewhere?”, Baekhyun shrugged, now looking at the glass door, towards the side.

 

Chanyeol bent down, “No, it’s because you are still in that accident, I warned you, didn’t I?”, Baekhyun slowly looked at him. 

 

Chanyeol mouthed at him, “Wake up.”

 

Baekhyun came back jolting awake, wheezing heavily, when he saw Junmyeon and Chanyeol hovering over him, “Is he back?”, Sehun spoke from somewhere ahead, “I went back to the scene, shittttt, I couldn’t jolt him back in time…,” Chanyeol spoke over them. He was holding the paddles in his hands, ready to jolt him awake again if need be, but somehow seeing the other breathe at last, made him throw the paddles away. 

 

“But we went back further and tried bringing him back, didn’t we?”, Junmyeon was looking at him, “Baekhyun, I swear, it took us two weeks to bring you back, if it wasn’t for Chanyeol, you could have gone into a coma, we cannot just keep losing you like this.”

 

“I think we got to him in time, he seemed to have come back, how is his wound?”, Chanyeol was checking his head.

 

“Pretty serious, but nothing permanent,” Suho was holding a torch to his head. 

 

“Come on, he isn’t talking, are you sure you got him back, and I don’t know, maybe fried his brain in the process??”, Sehun spoke, with his finger on his chin, observing Baekhyun who was still on the ground.

 

Suho glared at him, while Chanyeol still closely observed the other. 

 

“It was my fault,” Chanyeol spoke, Sehun interrupted him, “It isn’t your fault, it’s mine, I was right there with him when it happened.”

 

The taller was now looking at him, “But I was with him, in the car, and I still couldn’t…..I hope he still remembers me, it was tough, trying to take him through everything, I had to keep going back……he hit his head pretty hard, are you sure it worked?,” Junmyeon was chuckling.

 

“Please before that he went for an year, you got him back from that…”

 

“Baek….Baek, can you hear me?”, he spoke slowly, trying to establish a connection with the other.

 

“I…remember you, you were that annoying kid who used to accompany Park Yeonae, the one who thought I was a kid myself….”, and he was breathing. 

 

“Oh my god, he is back, I love you so much!”, Chanyeol was hugging him, not at all bothered about hurting him.

 

“You came for me…..you knew how to help me…..I thought you wouldn’t understand….but somehow, you did……”, Baekhyun spoke slowly. 

 

“For God’s sake, stop working for a minute, we just got you back!”, Sehun was rolling his eyes at him. 

 

Chanyeol was beaming, “Damn, I will always help you, even when I don’t know how to, you will guide me, like you did, I cannot lose you just like that, not again, not after what we went through…”, and he saw when Baekhyun hugged him back as tightly as he could in his state, with the three of them laughing.

 

“Junmyeon hyung…”, Baekhyun spoke slowly, Suho bent forward to hear his words, “Who was it you wanted me to meet?….you….”.

 

At this, the elder scrunched his brows and looked around, abruptly clicking his tongue, “Oh, you mean, Sehun? I was going to bring him to your clinic the next day, he wants to work with you….”, Sehun smiled at him, before looking the other way.

 

“What is it?,” Chanyeol furrowed his eyebrows at the shorter in his arms, before the other shook his head, smiling.

 

“Nothing, just wanted to clarify something….. I was worried I was going to be trapped forever, but when I saw you enter the office, I knew you were there to help me, but it was all hazy……….I couldn’t remember you……maybe it’s our luck”, he spoke, looking at the taller, eyes welled up with emotion.

 

“It’s us, we don’t need luck, we will always come back to each other, and yeah, I kept jolting back, somehow, my younger self had a stronger connection to you than me, probably because I was weaker back then……and hence, he understood better how to look for a dreamer…..,” saying that the two looked at each other, before the four planned on having dinner at the nearby restaurant like always. But Baekhyun had his eyes on Chanyeol the whole time. Because there wasn’t anyone more forthcoming than him and more positive than him, who always made it possible for the doctor to believe that not everyone will leave. Because now he knew, Chanyeol was there for him, for good. 

 

He knew, Chanyeol would go to any lengths to bring him back, just like he did the last time, because they were not just simple people, they were dreamers, for whom, every realm was just another way to reach each other. 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Hello, Baekhyun, it’s good to see my son’s partner healthy looking, when did you get here?”, Park Yeonae looked at him from her thick rimmed glasses, eventually recognising him.

 

“Hello Mrs. Park, I just came here a minute ago,” he smiled at her, then looked at Chanyeol, who was bringing the kettle to the table. 

 

Chanyeol looked at him, smiling, while handing him the saucer, containing the cup filled only half to the rim, with cinnamon tea. 

 

He took it, and then sat back in the cane chair right next to Chanyeol’s mother.

 

She looked towards the farm splayed across the property, then looked at the two of them talking. 

 

“Oh Baekhyun, it’s good to see my son’s partner healthy looking, when did you get here?”, she blinked at him.

 

“He just got here,” Chanyeol spoke, quietly. 

 

“No, I mean, when did he come back here?” she looked at Baekhyun, who shook his head. 

 

Chanyeol almost dropped the cup, when the shorter looked up at him. 

 

He ran towards his side, “Are you ok? Did you get trapped again?”

 

Baekhyun smiled at him, “No, I just saw your mother come back from a beautiful trip in Italy, when did she go there?”

 

The taller scrunched his eyebrows, looking at his mom, “Probably before I was born,” he murmured. 

 

“No, she is holding you,” Chanyeol could see nothing when Baekhyun looked at oblivion, pointing at a vague location.

 

“Chanyeol darling, you were only three years old, how could you even remember?”, she chuckled, “Oh, I enjoyed that trip the most.”

 

Baekhyun laughed with her, looking at Chanyeol with utmost elation.

 

Chanyeol only furrowed his brows, “Both of you, enough of this, come back to reality, your tea is getting cold.”

 

And the two laughed at his whining, sipping the tea sitting in the lush greenery of the poplar trees in the spring of March.

 

 

—fin—


End file.
